The present invention relates to an endoscope having a rotatable distal end piece according to the preamble of claim 1.
From prior art endoscopes of the present inventor itself are known whose respective distal end piece in the form of a deflecting, as it is called, is bendable to all sides at a narrow bending radius. The deflecting substantially serves for facilitating the inserting operation of the endoscope, for instance, in the intestines of a patient by dynamically adapting the deflecting in accordance with the individual loops of the intestines and, thus, the inserting operation being considerably facilitated and consequently being less painful to the patient.
Usually an endoscope head, as it is called, in which a plurality of means required for an endoscopy is arranged is disposed at the endoscope tip. These means include, inter alia, lighting as well as rinsing means and, of course, a photosensitive element, for example in the form of an optical means, a photosensitive electronic component or a light conductor. The optical means serves for extending the viewing angle so as to be able to view as large an area as possible of the intestinal wall surrounding the endoscope head.
From the foregoing brief description of this complex component it becomes clear that a plurality of technical devices have to be arranged especially at the distal end portion of the endoscope so as to ensure the functioning thereof. On the other hand, there is only a relatively small building space available which forces miniaturization of all parts. These miniaturizations are necessarily limited, however, because from a certain degree of miniaturization the functioning especially of the mechanical parts cannot be ensured any more.
In view of this technical situation, it is necessary to provide an endoscope which fulfills the above-mentioned characteristics of modern endoscopes in which, however, a smaller building space is necessary or, rather, the building space available is exploited in a better way.